Chapter 1: Ch.1: Opportunity

A thick dark fog covered my line of sight to the point I couldn’t really tell where I was walking. My mind felt about as dark and empty as the surroundings where I stood, I couldn’t really tell at the time but it was as if my memories were disappearing and appearing time and time again in front of my very own eyes.

 

Familiar sensations covered my senses for a few moments at a time. Sometimes it felt warm and comfortable, and other times it felt incredibly cold and painful, but for some reason I just kept walking. With every step I could hear the reverb of my own breath echoing across the dark space around me. 

 

As I kept going, I eventually came to notice a pair of deep blue lights the size of small jewels shining brightly in the distance. Although my mind seemed to still be hallucinating, I knew better than to completely trust anything in such a situation but…It’s not like I had anything else to seek, especially keeping in mind that I have no idea where I was or what I was doing there.

 

As I approached the pair of shining lights, a voice spoke to me.

 

“Ah, there you are.” A deep, masculine, voice called out to me as the blue jewels turned directly to look at me. “Apologies, allow me to…Disperse this bothersome fog.”

 

With a single snap of his fingers a clear path that connected us both formed from within the fog, parting the thick gas cloud in two and giving me a clear look of the figure. He looked oddly normal. A tall man with black hair that was starting to turn grey at certain sections, sharp facial features that gave him a certain regal feeling, a short beard adorned the lower part of his expression and a smile was plastered on his face.

 

“Now, come closer. Allow me to take a good look at you.” He spoke again, beckoning me to walk over to him.

 

Without much else to do, I closed the distance. He stood taller than me, but for some reason it felt like I was looking at something far, far greater than my eyes could notice. Sort of the same feeling you get when staring at a massive whale diving deep under the surface of the ocean. A giant shadow that appeared simple and small at a distance, but magnificent and titanic up-close.

 

“Where….am….I?” My throat felt a little dry, and my confusion was more than clear, but he seemed to know things. The sort of things that would explain why my memories were so hazy and what had happened to me.

“This place has no name, for it does not need one. But your kind has picked up the habit of giving names to the unknown and trying to explain their purpose.” He seemed to notice I didn’t get a good grasp of his explanation since he chuckled before clarifying himself.

 

“You have called this place ‘Afterlife’, ‘Limbo’ and such other names.” He summarised.

 

“Then…I died, right?” I asked, oblivious to the redundancy of the answer.

 

“Precisely. Worry not, poor soul. You have been deemed worthy of being transferred into another cycle.” He seemed to look directly at me, not my eyes, not my face, not my body…But me. It felt weird, but he stopped glaring so intently once he noticed my discomfort.

 

“Another cycle?” It was…confusing, but I started to put pieces together. Such concepts seemed to almost come to mind as he kept talking for some reason. Vague memories of a young woman reading a book flashed before me, but the image was gone before I could process it.

 

“Reincarnation, in short. I am the one that will decide where your soul shall go once I am done evaluating you. Remain still for a moment.”

 

I wanted to ask more questions but something deep inside me, a primordial instinct if you will, instructed me to remain perfectly still. Not a single breath escaped my chest, and before I knew it the man gently tapped my forehead with his index finger.

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“You are a benevolent soul, it is a shame that you were not able to accomplish much in the short time that was given to you.” The man seemed almost disappointed for some reason. As for his words, I could not corroborate their accuracy since I could barely even remember I was a living person until a few moments ago.

 

“So…Where will I go?” I asked, a little more interested in this topic.

 

The man smiled.

 

“An interesting place. A world similar to yours, but different in many ways. It is cruel, ruthless and unforgiving, but also incredibly rewarding and beautiful.” The man spoke in riddles again, but if it was similar to my world then maybe it wouldn’t be too hard to get used to living there.

 

“What is it called?” I asked, out of curiosity.

 

“Aladar.” He replied, with a smug smile on his face. “It is a personal favourite of mine.”

 

“When will I be going?” And before I could ask any other questions, my mind blacked out.

 

“Right now. Take care, benevolent one, I will be watching with great interest.”

 

Although I could barely hear those words, I could at least feel a little more comfortable knowing that I wouldn't be alone in the darkness. With the Man smiling as my mind collapsed upon itself, my vision went blurry and eventually I fell unconscious. It would not be until what felt like hours of pretending to be asleep that I could recover the feeling of my breath going in and out of my body. The lukewarm embrace of clothing gently caressed my skin, and the familiar comfort of the sunlight bathing the upper half of my body would eventually wake me up.

 

Opening my eyes, the first thing I noticed was the views. A beautiful clearing in the middle of a think green forest. Tall grass surrounded me in all directions for several meters until the tree line formed a natural division in the area. The sun felt slightly smaller than I was used to, or was it? My memories were still hazy, and I wasn't sure of what to trust, but I still remembered my interaction with the Man, so I could at least wrap my head around the idea of having another chance to live.

 

"This is the kind of situation I should make the most out of, right?" I asked the air above me, my words being carried by the gentle breeze that caressed this side of the forest.

 

With a little bit of effort I stood up, looking down at the clothes that were covering my body. They looked and felt like what my previous self would describe as "Typical Fantasy" or "Faintly Oriental-Medieval", whatever those words meant. A long shirt that continued to the front and back to knee-level of a beautiful red coloration. A pair of comfortable, somewhat baggy pants and thick boots. My hands felt a little rough to the touch, but other than that I couldn't completely identify my external appearance for the time being.

 

With curiosity, I took a long gaze at the forest around me. Thick to what I assumed to be the north and getting thinner in density further south. At least if this world even uses the same directions my previous one did. Deciding that finding civilization would be more beneficial than going deeper into the forest, I turned south and began my march.

 

This was the first step to survival: Finding other people.

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